Vista x64 desktop freezes frequently

I was refered to this forum from the Malware forum. My PC has been cleared of all malware with the assistance of BHowett. A link to our topic is here: http://forums.whatthetech.com/PC_freezes_f…455#entry514455

I have installed all Windows updates and installed all new drivers that I can find. I have a Dell XPS 600 desktop running Windows Vista Home Premium x64, Intel 3.46 GHz quad core with 8GB RAM, and 1TB of storage. I have my sytem set to start at 6:30 a.m. every day, and it auto starts Microsoft Outlook. I run Norton 360, all current updates installed. I run IE v7.

This has been going on for about 2 months now. I tried to find a solution online and found What The Tech. BHowett has been very helpful and we found a couple items to remove. The removal of these items didn't seem to have any real effect. My PC seems to freeze up more frequently and for longer durations the longer I use it. After I've been at the computer for a couple hours it is almost unusable. It freezes every few minutes for as much as a minute or so. I'm not sure what else to put here, but please tell me what you might need to know and I'll get it to you as soon as I can.

Thank you for any assistance you can give me.

Robert

Good morning,

A Happy New Year to you.

I have read your entire log with BHowett. I have also done some research for you with Google, so I am hoping this link may assist you with your freezing problem. Look for Brakham's posts.

Please post back if the above is not the answer we are seeking for you. Other volunteers will come by to assist you.

kind regards,

Hi Tallin, Thank you for the advice. I will try it first thing in the morning, and report back when I have an idea if it works. I hope you have a wonderful New Year!! Thanks, Robert

Tallin, Here goes…….I tried the CD/DVD suggestion, my drives are PATA, so I disconnected them completely and it still froze up. I continued reading the posts in the forum you suggested and found more suggestions. I moved the HDDs from the original SATA ports to the unused ports, still froze up. I then found, downloaded and installed firmware updates for my CD/DVD and card reader, still freezes up. I am at a loss……any more suggestions? I don't really want to format the drive and start over, but it's beginning to look like I may have to. Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated!! Thank you, Robert

Good morning rwalloway,

To be honest no, I am at a loss to advise you further except to backup all your data immediately then wait for another volunteer to come by to assist if they can.

Your video card may be suspect so would it be possible to change it to see if that would help.

You could also run dxdiag, heres how:

• Start
• Run
• Type 'dxdiag' without the quotes
• Let it update, lower left corner
• Read and follow the text at the top under the tabs

Just might find what it is that is stressing you this fine 2nd January 2009. Really sorry I cannot be of more help. I am sure others will come by to assist.

kind regards,

Dear Tallin, Thank you for you help. I will run the dxdiag and post any results. I await any further suggestions from other people smarter than me. Thank you again, Robert P.S. Today is January 1, 2009 here, so not only are you more computer literate than me, you are a day ahead of me. Care to tell me what tomorrow holds for me???

Hi

Have you considered heat problems?

My PC seems to freeze up more frequently and for longer durations the longer I use it.

Thats a typical sign of heat related problems.

Clear out any dust-bunnies inside your casing. Also make sure that your machine is placed
so it can vent heat, cramped space and having the back of the casing close to walls etc. should
be avoided if possible.

Try take your casing off, then run the computer as you normally would. If it helps, it might point to
that the airflow is the culprit. If still no joy, place a external fan (if you have one) so that it cools the
machine, if this helps, you have to invest in some more fans for your machine.

If still no joy at all. You'll have to begin looking for RAM or CPU problems.

Regards Abydos

Hi Robert,

so not only are you more computer literate than me,

I would liked to have helped you further with your problem, but alas all is not lost as I am going to post on a private forum here at WTT your thread hoping one of the more experienced Team Members will respond to it quickly. You will not see the post, but will be the recipient of the results of it baring in mind that some of our volunteers are on holidays at present.

Please have patience Robert,

Best regards,

Hello Robert and Happy New Year.

As Abydos suggested, heat could be causing this but if so, I would expect it to lock up completely where you would have to power off then on to recover.

I don't have Vista, but if this were XP, the first thing I would do is try booting to Safe Mode with Networking and run that way for awhile , see if the problem occurs. If no then it becomes a matter of trial and error, enabling programs that start at boot time until you find the one that is causing the problem.

See here for how to use msconfig in Vista.

First, physically disconnect from the Internet to prevent a malware infection while your Anti-virus and/or Firewall are disabled in the following steps.

Click on Start then Run, type msconfig and press Enter.
Click on the Startup tab then the Disable All button.
Reboot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable several items at a time till you find the culprit.

If no, start msconfig and click on the Services tab.
Check the Hide All Microsoft Services box then click the Disable All button.
Reboot, see if it runs normal.
If yes then use msconfig to enable services till you find the culprit.

Once you've found the culprit, uninstall it or find out how to eliminate it from your system. Simply disabling it in msconfig is a temporary fix at best. Enable everything else you disabled.

Reconnect to the Internet when your AV and firewall are active again.

Good heavens! I just read your malware thread. 8GB of Ram and 1 Terabyte of storage My envy is drooling all over the keyboard!!!!!

Do you do any regular drive maintenance? A lot of junk can accumulate in various places and over time this can have a significant impact on system performance.

Download and install CCleaner. Make sure you go through the list of areas it cleans. There are some things
you may not want cleaned out. For instance, I have the following unchecked:

Under the Windows tab:
Internet Explorer:

• Cookies
• History
• Recently Typed URLs
• Last Download Location
• Autocomplete Form History

Windows Explorer

• Recent Documents
• Run (in Start Menu)
• Search Autocomplete
• Other Explorer MRUs

System:

• Memory Dumps
• Windows Log Files
• Start Menu Shortcuts
• Desktop Shortcuts

Under the Applications tab:
FireFox/Mozilla (f you have FireFox/Mozilla/SeaMonkey installed):

• Cookies
• Download History
• Internet History
• Saved Form Information

Opera

• Cookies
• Internet History

Applications:

• Office xxxx

If you click the Analyze button first, it will tell you what it's going to delete. You can look through it if you have the patience, then click the Run CCleaner button to do the actual file deletes.

Many folks here also recommend ATF Cleaner by Attribune instead of or in addition to CCleaner.

You could also try removing 1/2 of the ram and see if that makes a difference. If not, put it back and remove the other half and try again. Defective memory can cause some very weird problems and with that much ram, who knows….

Dear All, I am very good at keeping the system clean of dust and junk, but just to be sure I cleaned it all out again. I regularly do drive maintenance and will do all that again in the morning. The other suggestions I will get to in the morning and post the results as soon as I can. Thank you again. Thank you, Robert P.S. Ztruker I'd just about trade you right now!

I have been running my pc with the case open for better airflow, and the fans are running properly. I've been trying to eliminate certain programs, add ons, and services to attempt to find the problem. So far not much luck. I couldn't get Norton 360 to load so I uninstalled it and reinstalled it. Things seemed better for about 2 days. only a couple of freeze ups. Today it froze for several minutes and I had to manually shut it off and restart. I'm becoming more convinced I will have to reformat and reinstall. Any further suggestions will be greatly appreciated before I take the big dump. Thank you, Robert

hi I run wndows vista home primium. I have exactly the same problem and so do lots of people. I thought it was a hardware problem but start to think that something is wrong with the x64 of vista. I came here because i googled it and came across lots of people 109.000 things were found. the first three pages is forums and people with the same problem. my comp is: 8650 AMD triple core gigabyte m757sli motherboard 6 gb 6400 ram 9500GT gainward 1 gb graph card 1 terabyte HD 500 gb HD It drives me mental and is a real pain. I found lots of suggestions and none worked (yet) it costed me lots of time and it's still doing it. I think I will email microsoft, and maybe everybody else should do too. If anyone knows how to solve this please please and pretty please tell me! Thank you all for the sugestions and keep them comming!!

The only suggestion I can think of is to reinstall from scratch, install AV/Firewall and all updates, nothing else. See how it runs. If okay then very slowly install your other software. running it to see if it freezes. This will take awhile, but may help you to determine what is actually causing the problem (if it's not Vista 64 bit itself or some dodgy hardware). Other than that, the only other alternative I can see is to dump the 64 bit version and go to 32 bit version.

I just did some more research and found out that a awfull lot of poeple have this problem, I reinstalled the x64 version 3 times now, and on 2 times on different comps. they all have the same problem. I'm going back to the x64 XP version and let you know what happens. Is there any one running on x64 without any problems? I really like to find some one withuot any problems so we can compare notes and see what version they have.